The sale of Manchester United continues to remain in doubt despite three rounds of bidding

The future of Manchester United continues to be uncertain despite active interest from potential buyers and multiple rounds of bidding.

It has been over five months since the current owners of Manchester United, the Glazer family, announced that they would consider a sale of the club. However, clouds of doubt continue to loom large over the future of one of the biggest brands in all of sport.

Three rounds of bidding have already been orchestrated with the help of US bank Raine Group. There are at least two suitors (in the public eye) who have confirmed their interest in the project and are now waiting for a verdict from the Glazer family on whether they will press ahead with a full or partial sale of the club, raise capital from elsewhere, or perhaps do nothing at all.

The whole process has been extremely slow and drawn-out and it has also been conducted behind a cloak of non-disclosure agreements. This has prevented the two publicly known buyers - British billionaire and owner of INEOS Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Qatari Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani - from conductive large-scale public relations campaign and explaining their plans and projects in details.

The Glazers possess around 95% control of the club’s voting rights and they have owned Manchester United since 2005.

While the initial expectations suggested that the potential sale could end up being the most expensive purchase of a sports team in history, that has since come under scrutiny especially since the $6 billion bid for the Washington Commanders NFL franchise by a consortium led by Apollo co-founder Josh Harris last month.

Ever since the sale of Chelsea to US investors Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly last year, several top football clubs and sides have eyed top investments or even outright sales.

Chelsea received more than 250 enquiries and 12 credible bids, before narrowing it to a final four who wanted to buy the club in its entirety. Todd Boehly ended up as the owner with a bid of £2.5bn almost exactly a year ago.

The sale of Manchester United has been vastly different in comparison. Interest has been far more subdued during this saga and many point to the more challenging economics of a transaction with interest rates much higher than a year ago.

Moreover, the US Raine bank, which also led the Chelsea sale, has replayed a strategy of setting deadlines for bidders, a common tactic in dealmaking designed to stir competitive tension. “It’s a game really and Raine are just trying to push the auction,” said Duncan Drasdo, head of the Manchester United Supporters Trust.

“That’s their job, to maximise the price, and they’re trying to play one bidder off the other.”

However, in the case of Chelsea, the owner - Roman Abramovich - was forced to sell the club after coming under pressure from the UK government due to his close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The prospect that it would be a fire sale helped drive the wave of initial interest in the club.

On the other hand, both Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani are having to convince the Glazers to part ways with the club with their bids.

The club’s New York-listed shares give the business an equity value of around $3.1bn, plus around $800mn in debt. “The price tag will have filtered the list naturally,” said a longtime associate of the Glazers.

“The beast you’re taking on, if you think of the history of United, it’s something extraordinary.”